Many bag-like or bundling devices are known in the prior art for the multipackaging of bottles. Problems encountered in the art involve such questions as what can be done to prevent bottles from skewing in a package, how can the bottles be shielded in a package to protect the contents of the bottles where those contents are light-sensitive or to reduce the potential of flying glass fragments where the bottles are made of glass subject to fracture and the contents are under pressure, how to provide an effective handle or other means for carrying of the package, and lastly, and perhaps most importantly, how to produce such packages at low cost to render them economically acceptable.
Arrangements are known in the prior art for in one way or another solving one or more of the noted foregoing problems or questions involved in the art of multipackaging bottles. In some instances, paperboard baskets and wraps have proved effective. In other arrangements, bottle dividers or individual bottle containment in the package has proved effective. In one large area of the prior art thin material known as heat shrink films have been used in an attempt to solve the economic problems of the art.
The background of the subject invention is not in the fields of either paperboard devices or heat shrink films, but in the field of devices that involve what may be called bundling or firm securing of a wraparound device securing a group of objects. The subject invention further involves the use of bag-like devices formed of resilient flexible plastics materials that are capable of being stretched and tensioned about groups of relatively heavy bottles.